Bowl-attaching duct member for a hair dryer



' May 19, 1970 F, D. MARHAKA 3,512,809

BOWL-ATTACHING DUCT MEMBER FOR A HAIR DRYER Filedoct. 1o. 196s /O y/l/ V5 A/ QZ Fem/e j MAY/@MMM United States Patent O 3,512,809 BOWL-ATTACHING DUCT MEMBER FOR A HAIR DRYER Frank D. Marhanka, Florissant, Mo., assignor to E. W.

Harting Manufacturing Company, Inc., St. Louis, Mo.,

a corporation of Missouri Filed Oct. 10, 1968, Ser. No. 766,563 Int. Cl. F161 41/00; F26b 9/00 U.S. Cl. 285-189 5 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A bowl-attaching duct member for a hair dryer imposes a minimum of localized stresses on the bowl adjacent to its rectangualr duct attachment opening. A circular flange, presented against the outer side of the outer bowl, provides an outer line of clamping. For clamping within the outer bowl, rounded upper and lower anges are used, the upper flange being formed on the end of a leaf spring, Iand drawn upward by a thumb screw. When the screw is loosened, light downward pressure so deflects the spring as to permit disengagement of the duct opening over the flanges, for cleaning and for easy remounting.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Bowls for professional hair dryers, such as used in beauty parlors, are subjected to severe handling, and often crack and break at the point of attachment to the air duct which supports them. Severe stresses may be imposed, both at time of manufacture and later in use, as when the operator presses the hair-dryer bowl downward over the head of the customer whose hair is being dried, and raises it so that the customer may arise from the chair. Even in its original assembly, and in disassembly and reassembly in the course of cleaning, breakage may occur.

For such professional hair dryers, the bowl actually consists of two plastic spaced-apart inner and outer bowls, substantially spherical in form, mounted inverted and held together at the proper spacing by a rim about their lower edges. The outer bowl is mperforate, save for a rectangular opening at which it is attached to a rectangular sheet metal air delivery duct by which itis supported. The inner bowl has many small holes over its entire area, through which air is delivered to the customers hair fromall sides. Such typical construction is shown in U.S. Pat No. 3,258,- 848 to Watlington.

Heretofore no satisfactory attachment has existed for connecting the air delivery duct to the rectangular opening of the outer bowl. In the typical construction shown in said patent, the outer bowl is riveted to a flange at the end of the final short section of duct. This construction imposes concentrations of stress, both in original construction and at every subsequent raising and lowering of the bowl; so that breakage is frequent. Besides, unless that portion of the air duct riveted to the bowl is short and easily dismounted, no feasible way exists for cleaning the assembly save by removing the rim which connects the lower edges of the inner and outer bowls.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Generally summarized, and without limiting its scope, the present invention comprises a bowl-attaching duct member for a hair dryer. A hollow rectangular duct section has an air outlet end including opposed upper and lower surfaces. At this end, projecting forward from the lower surface is a fixed securement member having a flange extending downward, whose aft clamping face is rounded. Similarly projecting forward and having an upper flange is a leaf spring secured, as by spot welding, to the inner side of the upper duct surface at a point spacedly ice inward from the air outlet end. The leaf spring has a flange which projects upward and has a similarly rounded aft clamping face. At its neutral position, the spring extends somewhat downward from the duct upper surface, but less than the downward projection of the lower flange. A. thumb screw which extends downward through a bore in the duct member upper surface, threadedly engages the leaf spring to draw it upward.

Adjacent to its air outlet end, the fitting has a round plate with a forward-presented circular flange, against which the bowl outer surface may abut. With the bowl in place, when the spring is drawn and secured upward, the convexly rounded clamping faces of the two flanges press and hold the bowl so that its outer surface is engaged by the circular flange. This distributes the clamping load and holds the bowl releasably with a minimum of stress.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. l is an elevational sketch of a bowl-attaching duct embodying the present invention, shown in place on a professional type hair dryer and mounting a hair dryer bowl assembly. The phantom lines show a raised position of the assembly.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line 2 2 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a similarly enlarged sectional View taken along line 3 3 of FIG. 2. The solid lines show the bowl asassembly in a position preliminary to mounting. The phantom lines show how the bowl assembly is engaged over a lower mounting flange.

FIG. 4 is a. view similar to IFIG. 3 showing the bowl assembly mounted and fully clamped.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Conventional hair dryers, such as utilized in beauty parlors, provide a chair a for the comfort of the user. Concealed within itis conventional mechanism not shown, by which air for hair drying is supplied through a vertical fixed duct member b to a pivoted duct section generally designated 10 of somewhat exterior dimension, on which an assembly of hair dryer bowls generally designated 40 is attached. In the embodiment hereof shown in somewhat greater detail in FIG. 3, the pivoted duct section 10 is rectangular in form and fabricated from sheet metal. Its forward lower edge is mounted to the duct b by a pivot pin c. To limit the angle through which the bowl assembly 40 may be lowered, a stop block d, secured within the upper rear edge of the fixed duct section b, is engaged 'by a movement-limiting angle 11, spot welded to and projecting downward and aft from the rearmost edge of the downward curved upper duct surface 12.

In use, the dryer bowls are moved, from said solid line position of FIG. l to the phantom line position, so frequently as is likely to cause breakage at their point of attachment. A principal purpose of the present invention is to provide for their attachment with such distributed loading as will avoid the force concentrations which may cause fracture.

For this purpose, the present duct section 10 has unique bowl-attaching provisions at its rectangular air outlet end 14 for clampedly mounting both the inner and outer surfaces of the outmost dryer bowl. Mounted about this outlet end 14, are means to -abut the outer side of the bowl assembly 40 outwardly of the rectangular end opening 14. In the preferred embodiment, said means comprises a circular plate member 18 having a rectangular opening 19 including mounting flanges 20 spot-welded within the inner surface of the forward end of the duct 10. The plate member 18 extends outward from the upper and lower surfaces 12, |15 of the duct member 10 by an amount greater than the extent of flanges, hereafter to be described, which abut the inner side of the bowl assembly. At its outer edge, the plate member 18 has a forward projecting circular rim flange 22, which provides a circular line of abutment for the outer surface of the bowl assembly 40.

Attached, as by spot welding, ush against the inner side of the lower duct surface is a xed lower securement member 23 which projects forward from the air outlet end 14 of the duct section 10, through and beyond the rectangular opening 19 of the circular plate member 18, and there has a downward extending flange 24. The securement member 23 is conveniently formed of sheet metal, and extends nearly the full width of the duct section 10; its ange 24, or in any event, the aft face '25 thereof, is convexly rounded to correspond somewhat to the roundness of the segment of the spherical outer bowl to be mounted thereon.

Formed to a configuration similar to that of the lower securement member 23 but extending somewhat farther into the duct 10, is a broad leaf spring member 26 whose foremost projecting end 27 is rigidly secured to the inner upper duct surface 12 as by spot welding.

From this point of securement, the spring member 26 extends to and beyond the air outlet end 14 of the duct section 10, to a nearly rectangular juncture 28; here the spring member 26 has an upward extending ange 29 with a convexly rounded aft clamping face 30. Neither the downward flange 24 nor the upwardextending flange 29 extends as far from the duct outlet 14 as does the circular rim flange 22 of the plate member 18.

A small reinforcing plate 32 spot-welded to the under surface of the leaf spring member 26, spacedly between its foremost projecting end 27 and its rectangular juncture 28, reinforces the leaf spring member 26; through them is a tapped bore 33. Alternatively to the plate 32, a nut may be welded there. In registration with the bore 33 in the upper duct surface 12, a relatively large diameter clearance aperture 35 is formed. A thumb screw 36 having a turning knob 37 with a lower abutment surface 38 larger than the aperture 35, extends through the aperture 35 and threadedly engages the tapped bore 33.

The leaf spring member 26 has a normal neutral position, when not subject to load, in which it extends somewhat inwardly away from the upper duct surface 12, inwardly into the duct. For convenience, this position is referred to as being downward from the duct upper surface 12. It is to be understood that what is meant is the position shown in solid lines in FIG. 3. From this neutral position, it may be flexed sharply downward, as shown in phantom lines in FIG. 3, by a downward pressure exerted on the bowl assembly to be described; or is drawn up tightly against the upper duct surface 12 as shown in FIG. 4, with the lower abutment surface 38 of the thumb screw 36 bearing against the upper duct surface 12 around the aperture 35.

The hair dryer bowl assembly 40 is fairly conventional. An outer bowl 41 is generally spherical in form, save for its straight cut bottom edge 42. To receive air from the duct section 10, it has a rectangular opening 43, as shown in FIG. 2, including a horizontal upper edge 44 and a horizontal lower edge 45. These are, shown preliminary to mounting and as finally mounted, in FIGS. 3 and 4, respectively. An inner bowl 47 of somewhat smaller radius has a straight cut lower edge 48 in parallel alignment with the bottom edge 42. The two bowls 41, 47 are mounted together by a removable rim member 50, which may have outer anges 51 to receive their bottom edges 42 and 48 and inner flanges 52 to hold them separated as shown in FIG. 3.

The procedure for mounting the bowl assembly 40 onto the duct member 10 will now be described. The horizontal upper edge 44 of the rectangular opening 43 of the outer bowl 41 is applied over the outer clamping face 30 of the upward extending ange 29 and rested in the juncture 28, as shown in solid lines in FIG. 3. With the leaf spring member 26 in the neutral, unloaded position there shown, the lower edge 45 of the opening 43 will be forward of the downward extending flange 24. In such neutral position the juncture 28 is downnward from its FIG. 4 clamped position, an amount less than the downward projection of the lower ange 24.

By pressing the outer bowl 41 downward, the leaf spring member 26 is deflected sharply downward as shown in the phantom lines in FIG. 3. Thereby the lower edge 45 of the opening 43 is so lowered that it may pass under the downward flange 24. Releasing such downward pressure on the outer bowl 41 permits the spring 26 to return upward to its neutral position; thereby holding the bowl assembly 40 preliminarily, prior to securing the leaf spring 26 in upward clamping position.

Thereafter to clamp the bowl assembly 40 tightly in place, the thumb screw 36 is turned, drawing the spring 26 upward into the FIG. 4 position where it abuts the inner side of the upper duct surface 12. When so drawn upward, the outer bowl 41 will be held clamped, above and below its rectangular opening 43, between the aft rounded clamping faces 25, 30 and the projecting circular rim flange 22. The portions of the inner and outer surface of the outer bowl 41 to which such clamping force is applied, are so extensive, and the clamping force is so distributed, as to avoid any local concentration of the clamping load; hence the outer bowl 41 is held with a minimum of stress, and the bowl assembly 40 may be moved upward and downward, as shown in FIG. l, with the least possible danger of breakage.

To dismount the bowl assembly 40 from the duct member 10, the thumb screw 36 is loosened so that the leaf spring member 26 moves downward to neutral position, shown in FIG. 3. A downward force thereafter exerted on the outer bowl 41 causes the upper edge surface 44 of the rectangular opening 43 to press downward on the spring 26, so flexing it as to permit the lower edge 45 of the rectangular opening 43 to pass beneath the Xed flange 24. The bowl assembly 40 may thus be removed as a unit from the duct member 10, without removing the removable rim member 50; and when so removed as a unit, may be rinsed and remounted in the manner heretofore described.

From this disclosure, variations from the details of this preferred embodiment will be apparent to those familiar with the problems of attaching dryer bowls to hair dryer ducts. Accordingly, the present invention is not to be construed narrowly, but rather as fully coextensive with the claims.

I claim:

1. For use with a rounded hair-dryer bowl having a rectangular duct attachment opening,

a bowl-attaching duct member comprising a duct section having a rectangular air outlet end including opposed upper and lower surfaces,

a fixed lower securement member projecting forward from the outlet end of the duct section lower surface, and having a ange extending downward, the liange having an aft clamping face,

a leaf spring secured to the inner side of the upper surface spacedly inward from the duct outlet end and projecting'forward therefrom and including a ange extending upward and having an aft clamping face,

adjustable means to move and to secure the spring in upward position, and xed means, mounted on the duct spacedly adjacent to said upward and downward extending flanges, to abut the outer side of the bowl outwardly of its rectangular opening,

whereby, when the spring is secured upward7 the .fbowl is clamped above and below its rectangular opening between said upward and downward extending flanges and said means to abut its outer surface. 2. A bowl-attaching duct member as defined in claim 1, wherein the aft clamping faces of such anges are convexly rounded, and the fixed means mounted on the duct to abut the outer side of the bowl is a circular flange. 3. A bowl-attaching duct member as defined in claim 1, wherein the leaf spring has a neutral position at which it extends somewhat downward from the duct upper surface, and in which the adjustable means to secure the spring in upward position includes a thumb screw projecting downward through an aperture in the duct member upper surface and threadedly engaging the spring between the point of its securement to the throat upper surface and its flange.

4. A bowl-attaching duct member as defined in claim 5. A bowl-attaching duct member as defined in claim 3, wherein the spring flange has a juncture with the spring at a point forwardly of the outlet end of the duct, and

at the neutral position of the spring, said juncture is normally below its drawn-up position for clamping by an amount less than the downward projection of the lower flange,

whereby, on engaging the rectangular opening of such bowl over and against said juncture and pressing the bowl downward, said rectangular opening may .pass under the downward flange to engage its aft clamping face, and by release of such pressure the bowl will be held preliminarily, prior to securing the spring in upward clamping position.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 757,641 4/ 1904 Saunders 285-210 2,799,518 7/ 1957 Anderson et al. 285-424 X 2,973,212 2/1961 Rosey 285-195 X 3,300,872 1/ 1967 Thieblot et al. 34-99 3,325,193 6/ 1967 Castello 285-189 THOMAS F. CALLAGHAN, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 

